On the 21st of June, Aitch was supposed to be going to surrender her current vehicle and collect the new SUV she was treating herself to. The timing was tied into the shift of the girl who had sold her the new car, so our morning was spent domestically, (I did the rest of the grass mowing!), before heading in the afternoon first to the cinema. We saw "Solo; A Star Wars Story" and thoroughly enjoyed it.
When we emerged it was running close to rush hour out of Ipswich as we headed for Nacton and it was very slow going. We made it to the showroom in good time, though. However, there was to be a disappointment for my friend, as it turned out some paperwork had not been transacted. The exchange was thus delayed. Feeling a bit dejected, Aitch suggested we go 'to the seaside at Felixstowe' and cool down a bit. (The temperature that day had been in the high 20's centigrade, so a sea breeze would be welcome.) After our long time in traffic earlier, this part of the outing was quick and straightforward. We parked at the viewpoint near the major shipyards. Felixstowe is the UK's busiest container port, handling in the order of 40% of overall shipping traffic. This is in part due to having the depth to receive the larger container vessels, such as the Maersk Matz, which was alongside when we visited. (Mind you, Maersk isn't too happy with the port at the moment...)
I'm sure I don't need to remind you I have a thing for ships too. **cough**
We sat and watched the movements on the water for a while, and the containers being loaded onto the Matz, then I wandered along the shoreline to get some beauty shots; Aitch followed behind and I rejoined her as she hunted out three different geocaches. We then went and got fish and chips (my once a year break of sattva) and sat on the beach watching the waves lap, the gulls mooch and swat off the gazillions of pollen beetles which had been swarming with the warm weather. (They're the size of two pinheads and thankfully don't bite or sting.) I was interested in the strange buildings and fitments around the place. Turned out there is a fort here I didn't remember from childhood. We decided it would need to be visited later.
When we emerged it was running close to rush hour out of Ipswich as we headed for Nacton and it was very slow going. We made it to the showroom in good time, though. However, there was to be a disappointment for my friend, as it turned out some paperwork had not been transacted. The exchange was thus delayed. Feeling a bit dejected, Aitch suggested we go 'to the seaside at Felixstowe' and cool down a bit. (The temperature that day had been in the high 20's centigrade, so a sea breeze would be welcome.) After our long time in traffic earlier, this part of the outing was quick and straightforward. We parked at the viewpoint near the major shipyards. Felixstowe is the UK's busiest container port, handling in the order of 40% of overall shipping traffic. This is in part due to having the depth to receive the larger container vessels, such as the Maersk Matz, which was alongside when we visited. (Mind you, Maersk isn't too happy with the port at the moment...)
I'm sure I don't need to remind you I have a thing for ships too. **cough**
We sat and watched the movements on the water for a while, and the containers being loaded onto the Matz, then I wandered along the shoreline to get some beauty shots; Aitch followed behind and I rejoined her as she hunted out three different geocaches. We then went and got fish and chips (my once a year break of sattva) and sat on the beach watching the waves lap, the gulls mooch and swat off the gazillions of pollen beetles which had been swarming with the warm weather. (They're the size of two pinheads and thankfully don't bite or sting.) I was interested in the strange buildings and fitments around the place. Turned out there is a fort here I didn't remember from childhood. We decided it would need to be visited later.
